Maybe Dr. Marks is getting ready to retire? Or he just can’t take dealing with us anymore

I think it’s possible Dr Marks could be getting ready to retire. I don’t know that, but I think it’s possible. If this was ever the case, I think he would pass his work onto his partner/protege.

Peter Burrows is much younger than Dr Marks. The fact that Dr Marks would even have Dr Burrows work under the same roof with him speaks volumes to me.

Theres always the guy, or gal that’s number one at anything. There will always be someone that will supersede their masters, or other masters in general. If there’s one thing you can count on in life, it’s change, and Dr Marks has been at this a long time.

Good luck- I had my second reversal with Marks about a year ago…and I flew down from VA. No regrets. If you’re in Phoenix its a no brainer to see him. He’s getting older but I bet either he or Burrows would be great for you…expensive but what options do you really have

Well, just got done talking to Dr. Marks for a solid hour. Great guy, super energetic. Seems like he loves what he does and is super knowledgeable about this condition. He was very up front that he is biased towards reversal and mentioned Dr. P’s approach and that it’s different from his, but also has good success rates.

Probably the most striking thing was “how” he talked about PVPS relative to my urologist. He talked about it like it was rare but none of the “what? I’ve NEVER had anyone with a problem? It must be your prostate!” crap that most urologists give you. He said 10% of his practice is pain patients. It was just disorienting as most of the people you talk to it feels like a lot of what you’re saying is convincing them you’re not crazy.

He quoted me a 90-95% rate of complete pain resolution with their reversals, for what that’s worth.

He rapid-fire took me through the entire list of conservative measures from warm baths and ice to herbal stuff (curcumin, fish oil, vitamin D) to NSAIDS to testosterone and steroid packs. I told him I had tried everything on the list except test and steroids.

He then took me through all the other surgical options (besides reversals), and gave me his thoughts on each one. Made some good points.

I described my pain and my history pretty thoroughly, and ultimately he didn’t think I was an “immediate intervention” type. He told me that if he was a betting man, he doesn’t think I’ll need surgery and that it will go away in time. Thought that was pretty interesting. I asked him to explain how he came to that conclusion and he said basically a combination of my pain reduction over time, my generally low level of pain, and just an intuition from dealing with a lot of patients over the years and their mental states. His advice was to try more conservative stuff for a few months, and see what happens.

So I’m honestly not sure what I’m doing now. It obviously feels “good” to hear that from a professional with a lot of PVPS experience.

Changed my thread title because now I’m not sure I’m doing anything. Sigh

@Tempe5 How long ago was your vasectomy? I spoke with him at 18 months and he was pretty aggressive with recommending reversal. Conservative measures should always be first. Surgery is never a good first option. Whether its a knee, back, or reversal, it doesn’t matter. It may be that you haven’t hit a pre-determined mark that he has in his mind as to when it’s appropriate to try a surgical option.

He’s the expert, not me. I do trust Marks more than others I’ve spoken with. There’s no harm in waiting. He had much different advice for me a year ago around my 18 month mark. He said something like, “you’ve waited long enough, get reversed, then take your wife on a nice beach vacation so you can both relax after all of this is behind you,” or something to that affect.

Ringo, it’s possible I’m making it sounds stranger than it was. Don’t get me wrong, he gave me the full pitch on getting a reversal vs something else, he just seemed like maybe he thought I wasn’t ready based on what I said?

I’ve been kicking this around with my wife, and we’re wondering if I have a tendency to downplay my pain. I’m a pretty even-keeled guy. I was pretty specific with him, however, and we talked for an hour. Not sure. He brought up several pain reversals that were early (one at 3 weeks he said), and was kind of just making the point that the timing of action is different for everyone. Again, not sure in retrospect, but he just kind of echoed my feelings going in, which are still that it “seems” like this may go away, but at 18 months, I’m not sure how much longer to go. Maybe he just believes in the test and steroid options first.

Interesting. Maybe you came of more “distressed” than me or something. I can say from reading your posts that your symptoms have been worse than mine. He did say something along the lines of “you’re not crippled, you can function, etc., so no harm in waiting”.

FYI on the “bad candidate” comment, one of my questions (from the list I made before the consult) was if he ever recommends against a vasectomy for pain. He said yes, in cases of people with certain “weird” bleeding diseases, or if they have to stay on blood thinners, and one other thing I can’t remember. So the implication was definitely not that he was advising me against reversal, more just that he thought I should try a few more things first.

This conversation has convinced me that he has talked to enough of us to tell if the person he’s talking to is “there” or not, meaning ready to pull the trigger. I can see how I came off like I wasn’t.

I think you’re onto something with a tendency to downplay pain. I do the same thing, even to the docs. It’s at those moments when we’re sitting down in a doc’s office when the pain can die down a bit. We should be asked the 1-10 pain scale question after standing for an hour.

I had my reversal 15 months after my vasectomy, and my onset of pain came 7-8 months after the vasectomy, so I had the reversal 7-8 months after the onset of pain.

Have you been in pain for the entire 18 months or did you have later onset like @MikeO and me?